The Jack in the Box
by methehuman91
Summary: The team is investigating the death of a little girl. After uncovering an organisation which sets up illegal adoptions, Brennan and Booth go undercover, posing as a married couple wishing to adopt. Will this role-playing lead to something real?
1. Chapter 1

'The Jack in the Box'

Disclaimer: Do not own the wonderful world of Bones, or the characters, because hey, owning people is illegal. It should extend to make believe people too :P

Note from the Author: Having only recently gotten into Bones, my viewing of it has been limited to the first 4 seasons. So my story won't work with all this new stuff that's going on. If you review my story, I would greatly appreciate if you don't mention anything about what's going to happen or maybe how this story doesn't make any sense, because you'll spoil the fun for me :)

Cheers, kids – hope you enjoy. I'm addicted to reviews, by the way – so, help a junkie!

Chapter One: Mutual Attraction

Sweets looked at the two intelligent, mature individuals in front of him. Fighting, again. Sitting on this couch, he often felt like an umpire as opposed to the psychologist when it came to his two favourite patients. Of course, their banter was the source for a lot of psychological musings, but just once, he'd appreciate the opportunity to converse with them as mature adults instead of petulant children.

There was a sudden silence in the room as the both sat at opposite ends of the couch, arms crossed and leaning away from the other, looking like pissed off bookends. The way these two would fight reminded him of an old married couple. If it had been ethical, he would have suggested they just had sex already.

But of course he was more professional than that.

Sweets cleared his throat, and instantly they both turned to look at him, their faces both conveying the same emotion.

'Well, that's not exactly how I wanted that exercise to go, but nevertheless, very insightful.'

'I'm glad you got something out of it, Sweets, that really makes it worth our while.' Booth muttered, glaring out the window.

'This is just another clear example of how psychology does more harm than good. Asking us to describe what we look for in a romantic partner was a completely pointless exercise and has achieved nothing. What helpful information have you derived from it?' Brennan asked, looking at Sweets disdainfully.

'Bones, you know he's just going to do that annoying thing where he avoids the question by asking us one...' Booth grumbled.

'On the contrary, Agent Booth. I discovered that you are both attracted to people with traits that you can find in each other.'

They looked stunned for a moment, before launching into an attack.

'What?' Booth spluttered, before being interrupted by a disbelieving Brennan.

'I do not have _one _of the qualities that Booth finds attractive in the opposite sex. I'm not sexy, funny... or... or good with kids... and whatever else he mentioned!'

'I dunno Bones, you're pretty funny sometimes – I mean, you don't always mean to be, but I find you amusing.' Booth said quietly, looking intently at Bones.

'Oh, like a court jester?' She said, crossing her arms.

'I didn't say that! And you're good with kids, too – Parker loves you.' Booth said, almost hopefully.

'Well, Parker is the exception. He's a well equipped, likeable boy.' Brennan said it curtly, but her face had begun to soften.

'And what about sexy?' Sweets prompted, looking directly at Booth.

'Are you asking me if I find Brennan sexy?' Booth asked, his face flushing slightly. Before Booth could say anything, Brennan answered for him.

'Well obviously the answer is no. I'm not denying that I'm not sexually _attractive _to certain men, but sexy is entirely another jug of fish.' She said it confidently. But Sweets didn't miss the sideways glance she threw at Booth.

Booth looked at her, hiding a smile. 'Kettle, Bones, another kettle of fish.'

They both shared a look before Sweets interrupted it.

'Dr Brennan, 'sexy' doesn't have a homogenous definition. True, there is a standard for sexy in western society, but regardless of this fact it differs from man to man. Certainly, males have a penchant for visually attractive females – which you are: but each man also has his own definition for sexy, what really turns him on. From my understanding, traits that you have and elicit are similar to those which Agent Booth finds sexually alluring. Of course, I'm not implying that this necessarily means that Agent Booth _is _attracted to you...'

'What exactly _are _you trying to say, Sweets?' Booth asked.

'I think he's trying to say he finds me visually attractive,' Brennan said, hiding a crooked smile.

Booth looked at her sideways, his face breaking into a grin.

'You know, I think you're right. Don't you have a girlfriend, Sweets? Shouldn't you be telling her how hot she is, not Bones?'

'He wants to _jump_ my Bones,' Brennan giggled, looking proud of her pun.

'See! You arefunny, Bones,' Booth remarked, laughing.

Sweets sighed. Anytime he thought he was about to make a breakthrough with one of these two, he'd be thwarted by one of them.

'Guys, this isn't about me! This is a classic avoidance technique...'

'You made it about you, Sweets, you can't deny it!' Booth said, pulling out his phone and turning it on. It immediately buzzed.

'I think we're done here, Brennan. Got a new case.'

'You can't just decide when we're done, Booth!'

Standing up simultaneously, their argument and anger forgotten, Booth opened the door.

'I'll try not to act provocatively around you, Sweets, for Daisy's sake,' Brennan said, laughing before disappearing out the door.

Booth didn't say anything before he left, leaving the door open.

Sweets stood up, slowly walking across the room to close the door.

He couldn't help but think maybe the ethical thing to do _would _be to tell them to just sleep together.

***

They found themselves behind a bright looking child-care centre, their eyes falling upon one of the bleakest scenes they'd seen in a long time.

Standing side by side, they looked down at the box which should have been empty. Instead, the remains of a baby were inside.

'You alright, Brennan?'

'Of course. It's just taking me a bit longer to disconnect from the bones... she's just so tiny.'

'It's okay Bones. I'd be worried if it didn't.'

Shaking herself to gain composure, Brennan kneeled down besides the box, delicately pointing to facial features.

'Asian features... approximately eighteen months old.' She paused for a moment, looking over the body of the baby.

'She has broken ribs. The injury wouldn't have killed her, but she would have been in a lot of pain.'

Booth grimaced.

'Can you work out the cause of death?'

'Not from here.'

Without another word, Booth turned to face the FBI forensics in the area.

'Alright, we're going to need to take this little girl back to the Jeffersonian! Find out what sick bastard did this.' He said, before turning back to look at Bones, who was looking up at him, her eyes sad.

Booth put a hand on her shoulder, and standing up, they headed to Booths car.

***

Well, there's one chapter. Not sure how often I'll be able to update – Uni requires way to much work for my liking! Hopefully it was enjoyable... I'm looking forward to working on it. Constructive criticism, ideas for the story, etc are all taken on board! I like interactive stories :)


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews : ) Taking on board the suggestions/tips made !

Rationality, Love and Lunate

Booth looked over as Brennan gazed out the window, her mind elsewhere. She'd clearly been disturbed by the bones of the child – he was still amazed that people didn't see how closely she was affected by the cases she worked on: sometimes he thought she didn't even see it. He knew she had one of the biggest hearts. Brennan turned to face him, her brow crinkled.

'Remember when I wanted to have a child? I'm concerned about the ease in which I forgot that desire. It suggests I would make a bad mother – seeing as I've been so fickle about the matter.'

'What's brought this up? Sweets stupid exercise?' Booth asked, turning to look at her momentarily.

'No, actually. It was the little girl, discarded in a box.'

Booth almost felt like stopping the car. Did she think that in not pursuing her desire for a kid she was somehow like the person who left that baby to die?

'Brennan, no matter what you think, I know you'd make a good mother. You'd have amazing children, and you'd be an amazing mother.'

'But what's your proof?'

'Do you remember that baby we looked after for a couple of days a few of years ago? Or how good you are with Parker? Or your little nieces? You know there's proof, Bones. I know you'd make a good Mum.'

She smiled slightly. 'Thanks, Booth.'

He looked at her out of the corner of her eyes.

'You're not thinking about having a kid again, are you?' Booth asked, not being able to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

She smiled fully this time. 'Don't worry, Booth, I have no current plans for a progeny at the moment.'

'Good. I hate the idea of you being inseminated by some random...'

Brennan snorted.

'That uh... didn't come out exactly how it should have,' Booth said, shuffling in his seat slightly.

'When did you decide you wanted to be a father?'

'Well, I never really decided. It just happened. But once Parker was born... it was like there had never been any other choice. You know how you feel completed by love? Llike life makes sense all of a sudden, when you're in love? Once I held Parker in my arms... it felt like I knew my reason. And whenever I feel lost, I can just look at Parker, and it all makes sense again.'

'I've never had that feeling, Booth.' Brennan said quietly, looking out the window again. 'I've never had that sense of completeness. At least, not in the way that you describe. Not by love, or a child. I can only find sense in rationality.'

Booth looked at her, and he wanted to reach out, to help her feel what he did. Show her there was more to life that rationality. He did feel like he'd do anything for her – he wanted her to feel what she longed for, but wouldn't allow herself to risk. He wanted that more than anything.

'Look, Bones... one day you will. And when you do, come see me, so I can say, 'told you so'. You know I'll get a kick out of that. You wouldn't be able to explain those feelings with rationality or science or... anything. You'll know one day, Bones.'

She smiled. 'You do love proving me wrong.'

'It's not every day you can prove a genius wrong.'

'Well, actually, I have been known to prove many a genius wrong...'

***

Cam stood with her hands on her hips, looking down at the small body.

'Wow,' she said sadly. 'We haven't had a body this small in here in a long time.'

'Do we have a cause of death yet?' Hodgins asked, hands in pockets. Angela stood beside him, biting her lip.

'No, not yet. The fractures to her ribs wouldn't have killed her – at least not immediately. But from my analysis, my approximation would be exposure - if she'd been left in the open without food or water for five to eight hours... she wouldn't have been able to survive that. And I can't find any other injury which might have been fatal.'

'How could someone do that to a little kid? Break her ribs and leave her to die... that's just... monstrous.'

Hodgins leaned down next to the body, looking intently at the knees. 'I might be able to get some particulates off her knees, see where she'd been crawling around before... well. And maybe her shoes. And hands, I suppose...'

'Alright, see what you can find.' Cam said, before turning to Angela. 'Do you think you'll be able to do a facial reconstruction?

'It'll be difficult, Cam... you said she was about 18 months, right? Tissue depth markers are hard to pinpoint... but I'll try.

Cam smiled. 'All we can ask of you, eh?'

'Yeah. When will I be able to take the skull?'

'I assume Brennan will want to look at the remains again, so however long it takes her.'

'Right. Well, I'll start looking for any missing child reports that might match her. Might get lucky.'

'I hope we do.' Cam said, before turning back to the child and continuing her examination.

***

Brennan leaned over the child's body, examining the freshly cleaned bones for anything that could indicate her identity – or anything about the child. After reading Cam's report, and examining the remains, she did agree that the child had died from the broken rib, along with the exposure to the elements. Brennan estimated that the body had been lying amongst the rubbish behind the child care centre for around 5 days, and the rate of decomposition down to alley cats and rats. The thought of it sickened her: even through her compartmentalising, she was having difficulty shaking the feeling of sickness that this case was bringing her.

'Just look at the bones,' she muttered to herself, picking up the child's ribs and examining them. Considering the context, she would most likely attribute the breakage to abuse: she'd seen similar injuries in children of mass graves in Sudan, who'd shown signs of having been buried alive after being unable to continue working after they'd taken one too many hits.

Considering the extent of the break, she paused for a moment to calculate the force it would take to explain the injuries. That of a punch of a fully grown adult, about sixty five kilos, she roughly estimated. And she knew her rough estimates were usually about ninety nine percent accurate. So, they were looking for someone around 143 pounds. That didn't really narrow it down to any gender... it didn't narrow it down to anything.

'What's on your mind, Bones?' Booth asked, climbing up the stairs.

'Considering my futile deductions.' She pointed to the ribs. 'This injury would most likely have occurred from a punch of someone with a mass of around 65 kilos – 145 pounds,' she corrected, remembering Booth didn't work in the metric system.

'Well that's something, Bones.'

'Not much though. These Bones... they say very little. They don't show signs of long term abuse, or...'

She paused, taking the bones from the child's wrist and placing it under the microscope.

'I can't believe I missed this,' she said, looking up at Booth for a second. 'Her left wrist had been fractured – children's bones are very flexible, a lot softer than adults. They heal fast, and as they're initially mostly cartilage, once they're broken it becomes harder to detect as the bones are covered with harder substances, like calcium. But I should have seen this!'

She looked at the other wrist.

'Both wrists sustained greenstick fractures to the lunate. It would have made it impossible for her to crawl for about 6 weeks, maybe more. It's an old injury – well, old relative to her age. She would have only been about 6 months old when.'

'How would she have broken the bone?'

Brennan considered the little lunate bones for a moment, before turning to look at Booth.

'Someone broke them. Both have identical markers – suggesting that the breaks were done systematically. Also, considering that the lunate bone is incredibly hard to break... someone broke them.'

'Someone didn't want this kid crawling places.' Booth said, looking at the bones in Brennan's hands.

'That is a fair hypothesis. But why? It's an essential part of development – '

'Bones. I don't think the person in charge of this kid was concerned about her development.' He said, crossing his arms.

'No.' Brennan said, placing the lunate bones back on the table. 'They couldn't have been.'

***

Well that was excellent fun! Please don't look up the science, because I'm half making it up from television shows I've seen and half from incredibly brief research! Obviously this story isn't going to be as scientifically accurate as the show, because that would require way too much effort – hope you can all deal with that! And also, I'm Australian, hence the spelling of 'Mum.' It's against my culture to write 'Mom'. Hope you liked this chapter!


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